Shockingly revealing linguistic observations

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I was having a casual conversation with my friend Callum at the bar the other night. I said something about the fall -- I can't even remember what it was. He paused before responding, and asked if "fall" meant "autumn".

It turns out Australians don't use the word "fall" to refer to the autumn because they don't have native deciduous trees. There is no such thing as the fall, here.

Somehow, I had never considered that. I was suddenly struck by how profoundly the environment influences culture. I remember having the occasional disorienting linguistic observation when I lived in France, but I didn't expect that to happen here, where I thought I already spoke the language. It makes me wonder what the world would be like, if the British hadn't come to conquer all of it.

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